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Kakita Wayozu
Kakita Wayozu was an artisan of the crane Clan and the first female mistress of the Kakita Academy. Artisan Wayozu was a brilliant painter and calligrapher, known for her gentle even-tempered personality. Despite the Kakita Academy was quite traditionalist and many of the resident Masters doubted a woman could bear the responsibility to lead it, the Kakita Daimyo himself appointed her as the first female mistress of the Academy Great Clans, p. 56 in the year 528. She promoted artistic works that defended the Empire's traditional structure of six Great Clans, in opposition to the teachings spreaded by the famous monk Gorinno, who promoted Five Rings, Five Clans. Imperial Histories 2, p. 86 Master Sensei Wayozu served as the master sensei to all the arts taught at the academy, including iaijutsu. Although not a student of the sword, Wayozu would still spend hours in the dojo studying bushido, as well as the gentler arts. She was a well respected headmistress, and many expected her reign to be spent in peace and harmony and Wayozu to be remembered for her wisdom and gentle nature. That was, until war was declared with the Crab Clan in 535. Way of the Crane, p. 84 The Crab Clan Champion Hida Yamate sent an army into the southern Crane lands, hoping the impending forcible union of the Crane and Scorpion promoted by the Imperial Advisor Gorinno would make them too distracted to respond effectively. Imperial Histories 2, p. 88 War With the Crab The Daidoji forces took heavy casualities, and in the end the Kakita were called upon to aid in the defense. Wayozu dispatched the Kakita Artisans who had specialized in iaijutsu and watched as they were cut down by the Crab. The Kakita had to withdraw, and pulled back to the large bridge that spanned a ravine near the River of White Waters. Wayozu gathered up a number of artisans from the school and went to the bridge to defend it with their lives. With a mighty effort Wayozu began to fuse their abilities. First the poets, then the actors, then the painters and storytellers, until finally they had created a realm of fantasy which existed only in their art. Wayozu and several of the artisans released their own souls into their works, destroying their bodies but bringing the works to life. The Hida warriors besieging the bridge vanished without a trace, and no remains of the artisans were found either. The only thing found was a fine book with delicate calligraphy written in a language unknown to Rokugan. The writing was never deciphered, but it is rumoured that it is a tale of the Crab and Crane, and the war they had fought, and about the world they had been drawn into never to return. The pictures in the book depicted a Crab army, and the characters in the bindings appeared to be the Crane artisans who disappeared. Whether they still lived in some world of imagination was unknown, but the battle was always remembered with a celebration at Kyuden Kakita on the sixteenth day of the month of the Dragon every year. Way of the Crane, pp. 84-86 The Crane presented the book to the Emperor Hantei XIII. Imperial Histories 2, p. 91 See also * Kakita Wayozu/Meta Category:Crane Clan Members